thoughts (and links) of a retired "social scientist" as he tries to make sense of the world.....

what you get here

This is not a blog which expresses instant opinions on current events. It rather uses incidents, books (old and new), links and papers as jumping-off points for some reflections about our social endeavours.

The book itself seems a bit incoherent – a bit of knock-about fun at Angela Merkel's expense; an emphasis on her (and Germany's) Protestant/Lutheran discipline (rather missing the point about the Catholic contribution to the concept of the social market); some obvious assertions about the new divisions in Europe; and then some wishy-washy points about the future.......

I would say that the first thing we have to think about is
what the purpose of the European Union actually is. Is there any purpose? Why
Europe and not the whole world? Why not do it alone in Germany, or the UK, or
France?I think there are four answers in this respect. First, the
European Union is about enemies becoming neighbours. In the context of European
history this actually constitutes something of a miracle. The second purpose of
the European Union is that it can prevent countries from being lost in world
politics. A post-European Britain, or a post-European Germany, is a lost
Britain, and a lost Germany. Europe is part of what makes these countries
important from a global perspective.

The third point is that we should not only think about a new
Europe, we also have to think about how the European nations have to change.
They are part of the process and I would say that Europe is about redefining
the national interest in a European way. Europe is not an obstacle to national
sovereignty; it is the necessary means to improve national sovereignty.
Nationalism is now the enemy of the nation because only through the European
Union can these countries have genuine sovereignty.

The fourth point is that European modernity, which has been
distributed all over the world, is a suicidal project. It’s producing all kinds
of basic problems, such as climate change and the financial crisis. It’s a bit
like if a car company created a car without any brakes and it started to cause
accidents: the company would take these cars back to redesign them and that’s
exactly what Europe should do with modernity. Reinventing modernity could be a
specific purpose for Europe.

Taken together these four points form what you could say is
a grand narrative of Europe, but one basic issue is missing in the whole
design. So far we’ve thought about things like institutions, law, and
economics, but we haven’t asked what the European Union means for individuals.

What do individuals gain from the European project?

First of all I would say
that, particularly in terms of the younger generation, more Europe is producing
more freedom. It’s not only about the free movement of people across Europe;
it’s also about opening up your own perspective and living in a space which is
essentially grounded on law.

Second, European workers, but also students as well, are now
confronted with the kind of existential uncertainty which needs an answer. Half
of the best educated generation in Spanish and Greek history lack any future
prospects. So what we need is a vision for a social Europe in the sense that
the individual can see that there is not necessarily social security, but that
there is less uncertainty. Finally we need to redefine democracy from the
bottom up. We need to ask how an individual can become engaged with the
European project. In that respect I have made a manifesto, along with Daniel
Cohn-Bendit, called “We Are
Europe”, arguing that we need a free year for everyone to do a project in
another country with other Europeans in order to start a European civil
society.

The Council of Europe published recently a series of lectures by various intellectuals on the crisis and Beck's Europe at risk - a cosmopolitan perspective gives a good sense of his book - and his other contributions. Self-indulgent academic sloganising which comes from too much time in incestuous discussions.
Earlier in March, the Guardian had given us a typical piece of shallow British prejudice in their coverage of the same topic - giving us Beck and a German comedian (resident in the UK). Almost 500 respondents took part in the subsequent discussion thread - which confirmed just how little Brits seem to know about Germany

About Me

Can be contacted at bakuron2003@yahoo.co.uk
Political refugee from Thatcher's Britain (or rather Scotland) who has been on the move since 1991. First in central Europe - then from 1999 Central Asia and Caucasus. Working on EU projects - related to building capacity of local and central government. Home base is an old house in the Carpathian mountains and Sofia

about the blog

Writing in my field is done by academics - and gives little help to individuals who are struggling to survive in or change public bureaucracies. Or else it is propoganda drafted by consultants and officials trying to talk up their reforms. And most of it covers work at a national level - whereas most of the worthwhile effort is at a more local level. The restless search for the new dishonours the work we have done in the past. As Zeldin once said - "To have a new vision of the future it is first necessary to have new vision of the past".I therefore started this blog to try to make sense of the organisational endeavours I've been involved in; to see if there are any lessons which can be passed on; to restore a bit of institutional memory and social history - particularly in the endeavour of what used to be known as "social justice". My generation believed that political activity could improve things - that belief is now dead and that cynicism threatens civilisationI also read a lot and wanted to pass on the results of this to those who have neither the time or inclination -as well as my love of painting, particularly the realist 20th century schools of Bulgaria and Belgium.A final motive for the blog is more complicated - and has to do with life and family. Why are we here? What have we done with our life? What is important to us? Not just professional knowledge - but what used to be known, rather sexistically, as "wine, women and song" - for me now in the autumn of my life as wine, books and art....

quotes

“I will act as if what I do makes a difference”
William James 1890.

"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas"
JM Keynes (1935)

"We've spent half a century arguing over management methods. If there are solutions to our confusions over government, they lie in democratic not management processes"
JR Saul (1992)

"There are four sorts of worthwhile learning - learning about · oneself
· learning about things
· learning how others see us
· learning how we see others"
E. Schumacher (author of "Small is Beautiful" (1973) and Guide for the Perplexed (1977))

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell, 1950

Followers

der arme Dichter (Carl Spitzweg)

my alter ego

the other site

In 2008 I set up a website in the (vain) hope of developing a dialogue around issues of public administration reform - particularly in transition countries where I have been living and working for the past 26 years. The site is www.freewebs.com/publicadminreform and contains the major papers I have written over the years about my attempts to reform various public organisations in the various roles which I've had - politician; academic/trainer; consultant.